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Exploring the future of transportation with Mercedes-Benz Vans

Have been mentioning the Startup AdVANce challenge a few times in our news archive. Now it is finally official!

In tough competition, CargoBeacon is one of only six startups that have been chosen to work with Mercedes-Benz Vans. During the autumn of 2017 CargoBeacon has been invited to Stuttgart to help Mercedes-Benz explore the use of beacons in the transportation of the future in a program called “Startup adVANce Challenge”.

The greatest risk for all goods in transit is the transportation-procedure itself. From the moment goods leave a warehouse until they reach their final destination, there is little or no information on how they have been handled which can lead to waste, supply chain disruptions and customer dissatisfaction.

CargoBeacon changes this completely by providing a compact, easy to use, affordable and rugged solution for logging cargo environment data for multiple shipments.

Olov Hisved, CEO of CargoBeacon, explains what it means to work and develop their system together with Mercedes-Benz Vans

We see a not too distant future where all goods in transit will have small, cost-effective sensors which communicate with logistics infrastructure on their way to their destination. In this way, small inexpensive devices will be able to provide near-real-time information about goods in transit, including their whereabouts and condition. It´s very exciting to be able to explore with Mercedes-Benz Vans how CargoBeacon fits into their vision of future transportation.

For us, as a small company with big ambitions and big potential, this is great recognition to have come this far. Now it’s up to us to do a great demonstration of the prototype to show Mercedes-Benz how our products can work together in a system that contributes to more efficient deliveries while maintaining a sustainable environment.

Tabea Ackva, Project Coordinator Startup adVANce Challenge, explains how they selected among the best ideas and why they want to work with CargoBeacon.

We actually got hundreds of applications with ideas from all over the world suggesting how to co-develop “Last Mile Transportation of Goods and People”. In total three different selections were done where the remaining startups had to refine their idea after receiving feedback. After the first selection, there were about 80 companies left. Among these, 10 companies were chosen to show if they really could deliver in a concept phase. There CargoBeacon proved they could work towards common time constrained goals. After a third round of applications with a refined prototype project proposal and an in-house presentation for Mercedes-Benz Vans management in Stuttgart CargoBeacon is now one out of six startups that will run a prototype project with us this autumn.

Tabea Ackva continues:

We find the development within IoT and logistics very exciting. We are very interested to see where this technology will lead in the future.